# The Long Walk, by Stephen King
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 21, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997 "2005-01-21T23:19:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/1 "2005-01-21T23:19:41Z")
Ok, the book is silly. I wanted that to show up on the preview, so you would all know how I felt immediately. There be spoilers here, although I really don’t know if anyone cares.
All that being said, there was one thing that fascinated me greatly - the soldiers. It says they were “hand-picked” from the Guards (whatever that is), and are described as being very neutral and calm the whole time. Even when one of the soldiers is \*killed \* by the Walkers, the others shoot the Walker calmly in the back and carry on.
I saw things from the point of the soldiers many times. Like, it must be a difficult job, shooting sixteen or seventeen year olds in the back, or in the head. I’m sure they didn’t volunteer for it.
The whole idea of these men having to follow these kids along and give the warnings, and shoot them intrigued me. Or maybe I read it wrong, and maybe they were supposed to be unspeakably cruel. But since everything was from the perspective of one of the children, who really knows?
Do we have it in us to that kind of job? And does anyone understand what I am talking about?
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### Author:  [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/2 "2005-01-21T23:22:16Z")
I never imagined it from their point of view. I just saw them as a plot device to move the story along. I actually liked it, and it made me cry at the end.
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### Author:  [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/3 "2005-01-21T23:29:35Z")
You’re talking about a society that enjoys watching teen aged boys walking to thier death. I don’t think it would be very difficult to find a group of men who would be callus enough to shoot them without it bothering them.
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### Author:  [@Cockatiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cockatiel)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/4 "2005-01-21T23:33:14Z")
I completely forgot about that book for a while. Loved it. I didn’t think it was silly at all (had such a good time reading it, I suppose I didn’t really think about the improbabilities). As for the soldiers, well, it was supposed to be in the future. They could have gone through some (painful) special mind altering desensitizing process. Or maybe they’re robots. Or maybe they have some kind of mind control chip in their heads. Or maybe they were infused with Mako. Or maybe…oh man, why’d you have to go and get me started? 😃
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/5 "2005-01-21T23:39:17Z")
> [@Cockatiel](#):
>
> I completely forgot about that book for a while. Loved it. I didn’t think it was silly at all (had such a good time reading it, I suppose I didn’t really think about the improbabilities). As for the soldiers, well, it was supposed to be in the future. They could have gone through some (painful) special mind altering desensitizing process. Or maybe they’re robots. Or maybe they have some kind of mind control chip in their heads. Or maybe they were infused with Mako. Or maybe…oh man, why’d you have to go and get me started? 😃
See it \*is \* interesting, to wonder why?
And I don’t think a society that likes to watch teenage boys is that far off from us. I’m not saying we’re horrible but there is an element of barbarism that the human race has never been able to shuck off.
Boy, I’m getting philosophical. Time to go wash some dishes. I’ll be back later, though.
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### Author:  [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/6 "2005-01-22T00:25:18Z")
This is one of my favorite King stories.
I don’t think it’s silly. Look at the direction “reality television” shows are heading. We’ve got people eating live spiders and maggoty road kill, enduring intense physical tests, and putting themselves in environments that cause great emotional instability–all for the sake of winning cash prizes.
It’s been a loooong time since I’ve read The Long Walk, probably 15 years or more. IIRC, the boys weren’t forced to participate. They DID volunteer, and the winner would receive a HUGE amount of money as a prize and would basically be set for life and considered a hero.
I don’t recall the soldiers being described in very much detail at all, with possibly one exception–their commander perhaps?. As **Speaker** noted, they were just a plot device.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/7 "2005-01-22T00:45:12Z")
The soldiers were actually culled from the “Squads”, not the “Guards”.
And that’s the extent of _my_ contribution.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/8 "2005-01-22T01:19:48Z")
Wait a minute! _The Long Walk_ was by Richard Bachman, not Stephen King! Let’s give credit where credit is due.
(Yes, I know. 😉 )
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### Author:  [@Ghost\_of\_Marlowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghost_of_Marlowe)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/9 "2005-01-22T02:37:04Z")
I saw the story as a metaphor for the Vietnam war, but I think King denied any (conscious) parallel.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/10 "2005-01-22T03:18:22Z")
> [@Ghost of Marlowe](#):
>
> I saw the story as a metaphor for the Vietnam war, but I think King denied any (conscious) parallel.
Oh.
Anyway, I thought it was silly not so much in the way it was written, but that it was 400 pages about boys walking and getting shot down. That’s all. The book opens on the walk and closes on the walk.
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### Author:  [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/11 "2005-01-22T03:37:18Z")
> [@Anaamika](#):
>
> it was 400 pages
Not quite. It was a novella. Four novellas were combined to make a single 400 page book. Oh, trivia time. What was the original title, and what were the other three books?
I don’t know offhand, but here’s my guess:[spoiler]The Bachman Books
The Long Walk
The Running Man
(That kid-goes-crazy-in-school story that got pulled from circulation after Columbine)
The Sun Dog (Killer dog comes out of polaroid camera.)[/spoiler]Am I close? What was the other 4-novella book he wrote called, and what were the four stories in that one?
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/12 "2005-01-22T03:41:36Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#):
>
> Not quite. It was a novella. Four novellas were combined to make a single 400 page book. Oh, trivia time. What was the original title, and what were the other three books?
>
> I don’t know offhand, but here’s my guess:[spoiler]The Bachman Books
>
> The Long Walk
> The Running Man
> (That kid-goes-crazy-in-school story that got pulled from circulation after Columbine)
> The Sun Dog (Killer dog comes out of polaroid camera.)[/spoiler]Am I close? What was the other 4-novella book he wrote called, and what were the four stories in that one?
Are you asking me? Cause I sure don’t know.
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### Author:  [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/13 "2005-01-22T03:48:55Z")
Wrong-O, Ellis Dee.
The Rage (pulled after Columbine. Pity, I really liked it.
The Long Walk
The Running Man
Road Work
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/14 "2005-01-22T03:54:13Z")
_The Long Walk,_ like _The Running Man,_\* is a dystopia. (Remember, King is a Baby Boomer and grew up at least touched by the radical influences of the counterculture, and this was 1979, when such things in America’s future still seemed plausible to many people. Come to think of it, they might seem even more plausible today, but I digress.) The leader – known only as “the Major” or “the Colonel,” I forget which (definitely not “the General”), is the military dicator of America, and, although few details are given, apparently his political ideology glorifies extreme machismo, courage, sacrifice, and survival-of-the-fittest – all of which are supposedly demonstrated by the “Long Walk” contest. “The Squads” are analogous to the El Salvador death squads of the '70s and '80s, if they had been actual agents of the government. Their main job is to eliminate political dissidents. One of the characters speaks of one of his family members as having been “Squadded” – which seems to mean either “disappeared,” or publicly summarily executed.
In that setting, finding soldiers willing to publicly shoot 99 young men in cold blood and in front of the TV cameras hardly seems implausible. It’s not far removed from their ordinary duties.
In fact, it’s not that implausible even in real-life terms. Has any dictatorship, in any country where such came to power, ever failed to find people willing to do the dirty work? The Indonesian troops occupying East Timor, Pinochet’s troops in Chile, the troops serving the SLORC regime in Burma, and no doubt the North Korean police (although with NK it’s hard to know much), all act/acted just like King/Bachman’s Squad troops.
(\*I always knew _The Running Man_ was much too radical and subversive to be made into a Hollywood movie with any part of the original story intact. Was I right, or was I right? ☹ )
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### Author:  [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/15 "2005-01-22T03:55:51Z")
There were five Bachman books: _Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man,_ and _Thinner_. The first four were repackaged as _The Bachman Books_ after King’s nom de plume was found out. _Thinner_ was reissued under King’s own name. (Of course there’s also _Desperation_, but that was a marketing gimmick many years down the road.)
_Rage_ was pulled not because of Columbine, but another school shooter (Kentucky?) who had a copy of the book in his locker.
I wanna know when the film version of _The Long Walk_ is coming out!
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/16 "2005-01-22T03:56:11Z")
Nitpickeringly Wrong-O, TM
It was “Rage”, not “The Rage.” I didn’t care for it or “Road Work”, in that they both feature main characters who go nuts for no apparant or at least clear reason
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/17 "2005-01-22T03:59:49Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> “The Squads” are analogous to the El Salvador death squads of the '70s and '80s, if they had been actual agents of the government. Their main job is to eliminate political dissidents. One of the characters speaks of one of his family members as having been “Squadded” – which seems to mean either “disappeared,” or publicly summarily executed.
In fact, it is the main character, Ray Garraty, whose father was “squadded.” It is clearly narrated, through Garraty’s thoughts, that his father was a loudmouth who spoke openly against the government and one day was simply picked up at home and taken away by government agents, never to be seen again.
Afterwards, Garraty’s mother strikes him when he speaks of his father, and warns him never to speak of him again. So clearly the Squads make people disappear, and have elicited genuine terror in the populace. Sort of like the way people were made “unpersons” in “1984.”
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/18 "2005-01-22T04:02:02Z")
> [@Anaamika](#):
>
> Anyway, I thought it was silly not so much in the way it was written, but that it was 400 pages about boys walking and getting shot down. That’s all. The book opens on the walk and closes on the walk.
That’s King’s style, he does it in a lot of his books. He writes about people suffering and he piles on detail after detail, page after page. It can get tedious but it’s often very emotionally effective. In _The Stand,_ the “Trashcan Man’s” long walk through the desert to Las Vegas, while dying of thirst and hallucinating, really grabbed me. And don’t get me started on _Gerald’s Game!_
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### Author:  [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/19 "2005-01-22T04:06:41Z")
**Ellis Dee** , it’s **Four Past Midnight**. The stories are The Langoliers, Secret Window, The Library Policeman and The Sun Dog.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-long-walk-by-stephen-king/285997/20 "2005-01-22T04:08:32Z")
[QUOTE=KGS]
There were five Bachman books: _Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man,_ and _Thinner_. The first four were repackaged as _The Bachman Books_ after King’s nom de plume was found out. _Thinner_ was reissued under King’s own name. (Of course there’s also _Desperation_, but that was a marketing gimmick many years down the road.)\*
Don’t forget _The Dark Half,_ which is kind of a Bachman book – it wasn’t published under his name, but the plot was obviously inspired by King’s experience with the Bachman pseudonym,
> [@KGS](#):
>
> I wanna know when the film version of _The Long Walk_ is coming out!
My guess? Never, and if it ever is made it will be no more recognizable than the _Running Man_ movie, and for exactly the same reasons. (And the right-wingers are always talking about “Hollywood liberals”! ☹☹ )
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